


The Heart, Morals and Laws

by lacoco4



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Ranger
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Child Neglect, M/M, Mutually Unrequited, Understanding, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 12:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16661401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacoco4/pseuds/lacoco4
Summary: Ice remembers.Isaac remembers.The title comes from a lyrics from the song 1925 by T-POCKET (Hatsune Miku): "If I were to list obstacles; they would be the heart, morals and laws."I think it fits the nature of our Professor Isaac and our evil leader of the Trio very well.





	The Heart, Morals and Laws

 Ice’s oldest memories are blindingly white.  
 Ice remembers crystalline waters and the thick layers of snow and ice, so white that when the sun shined down it hurt his eyes. Ice remembers how his fingers froze and ached, and if he recalls correctly, his heart was aching too, waiting and waiting for someone in the snow―the someone who left him in the snow, the someone who promised him to pick him up once he was normal enough. Already knowing that would never happen even in his very early stage of life, Ice was wondering whether he should bother attempting to return to the village. It seemed that he would surely die in the cold if he did not, but strangely enough, the fact did not draw his heart back towards the village. Instead, Ice set his eyes beyond the waters ahead of him. The waters seemed to continue endlessly, but somehow Ice knew that no water was endless and all waters would connect to land eventually. While gazing at the distance, Ice noticed an empoleon, silently laying down beneath him, looking into his eyes with its own sharp eyes. Ice remembers going through the crystalline waters, the freezing depth of the whirlpools, the ice boulders. Ice remembers the torches lighting up for him. Ice remembers opening the doors of the castle, and Ice remembers the pokemon. Ice remembers the fancy welcoming of the haunters, the natural sting of raichu’s electric fur, the red of the apple the wigglytuff handed him, the warmth of arcanine’s thick fat, the fire ninetales had willingly stoked for him… the things that kept him alive, breathing.  
 Ice remembers how the pokemon led him deep into the castle, into the inner room located in the deepest of the castle. Ice remembers the two riolu opening the gates for him, and Ice remembers the lucario bow down. Ice remembers the stone, shining blue, illuminating the whole room―the whole castle, perhaps. (Now Ice thinks: The whole land of Almia, perhaps.)  
 Ice remembers being rescued―being dragged back to the human village―and Ice remembers feeling alone, despite being back to the village full of people. Ice remembers the day a visitor came to the village―the dark, dark man who introduced himself as Blake Hall. Ice remembers how Blake Hall held out his hand, and how he took his hand. Ice remembers the noise of the helicopter, and Ice remembers looking down at the village he pledged he would never return to. It looked all very white from a distance.

 Ice remembers the day Kincaid brought the kid―the professor―and Ice remembers meeting the boy’s eyes for the first time. Ice remembers the bright green gaze, looking through him as if the boy was trying to analyze him. Ice remembers: “I’m Isaac. My IQ and height in centimeters are both one-hundred and sixty-three.” Ice remembers feeling like he recognized the frost in the boy’s eyes and voice. Ice remembers feeling suddenly not so horridly distinctive from the rest of humanity―in Isaac’s smile, Ice swore he saw the same color as his own.  
 Ice remembers:  
 “Hey, doesn’t the Impossible Machine scare you or something? You are building something that could possibly destruct the whole Almia region, if not the whole world itself.”  
 “Well, it’s not like we’re going to actually use it, right? Mr. Kincaid said that it’s just a theory we’re testing out. Besides―”  
 “But what if we were to use it? You know it would be possible.”  
 “It wouldn’t be possible without me.”  
 “You think you’re the only one who can program.”  
 “I am the only one who can program like I do, and you should know that by now.”  
 Ice remembers feeding the kid with soda-flavored candy, and how he thought he’d become the singular companion of the child professor who had claimed to be the only one.

 Ice remembers the day the child professor abandoned him and his team. Ice remembers the rangers who took the professor’s hand and the way they exchanged glances. Ice remembers the disillusioning; how his heart he didn’t even know he had dropped and shattered like glass, and Ice remembers picking up the shards and indifferently throwing them out. Ice did not bleed.  
 Ice remembers not seeing Isaac for a while. Ice remembers seeing the kid in the Ranger Union, looking horrified like a scared pichu. Ice remembers trying, but not really trying to communicate to the child. Ice’s attempts were only half-hearted, because, in truth, he knew he would never change the boy’s heart. Not when the boy was being smothered with love and care and every other warmth that existed in this world. The boy had the potential to freeze, to destruct, to return to the place where he rightfully belonged to―but the ranger beside him was in his way, radiating warmth and light like the sun, making the boy melt and shine. Ice remembers that it was rather a relief when Lavana appeared with her own plan, as Ice knew he could have and would have gone on and on with his meaningless games.

 Isaac pretends he doesn’t, but Isaac remembers the candies. Isaac remembers the nights with Ice, two heads staring into a single computer screen. Isaac remembers the day Kincaid gave him his job: “I believe that you will be a good teacher, Isaac, just as I was with you.” Isaac remembers how Lavana would smack the keyboard and how Heath would doze off during his lectures, but really, Isaac remembers Ice the most, not only because he was a passionate learner, but mostly because Ice would understand him better than anyone else―anyone else, including the people he’d met in his town and in Ranger School; even better than Mr. Kincaid.  
 What Isaac doesn’t remember is when Ice became so good at programming―Isaac thought of the Ice he’d used to know, and maybe that’s why it took him longer to hack his trap. Or maybe it was the fact that the quirky program was the last thing Ice left for him.  
 Anyhow, Isaac doesn’t hear from Ice again for a very long time.


End file.
